On 12 Oct, 13:43, Mwmbwls wrote:
On Oct 10, 7:56 am, James Farrar wrote:

The new issue of Private Eye, out today, has the following interesting
section on the much-delayed Shepherd's Bush WLL station:

Further detail from today's Evening Standard
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standa...-details/New+r...
quote
New railway station over budget...and undersized
Katharine Barney, Evening Standard
12.10.07
A new rail station needs millions of pounds worth of extra work -
because the platform is 18 inches too narrow.

The Standard has at least managed to talk of platform width, as
opposed to Private Eye talking of platform length.

However I'm certain that this Evening Standard article was completely
inspired by the piece in the Eye. The various news organisations that
are supposed to cover London (BBC London, ITN's ITV London news
division, Associated/Evening Standard and News Int'l's thelondonpaper)
have done a really bad job in failing to ask any questions, up until
now, about this new station and why it's opening kept on being
delayed.

James Farrar's post, with a transcription of the Eye article, was the
first I'd heard about this apparent muck-up about platform length
(though on a seperate uk.railway thread Paul Scott reports that this
was being discussed a few weeks ago on the RailwayScene internet
forum).


The Shepherd's Bush station was built in preparation for the massive
shopping complex Westfield London, which will open next year.
The work cost £12 million but only when it was finished did developer
Westfield realise the station would be unable to cope with the
anticipated volume of passengers.
Lampposts had been installed and signs put up before it was discovered
the width of the platform posed a safety risk.
Now a wall will have to be knocked down so the western platform can be
widened - at a cost to the developer of another £7 million.
A source close to the development claimed planners had not taken into
account the number of passengers changing between the mainline station
and the Tube.

This sounds like a bit of spin to cover up the fact that the platform
was seemingly built too narrow and hence doesn't comply with the
regulations.

Can anyone provide some more information here - does the platform
width regulations vary according to projected usage? Or is the
platform as is simply too narrow, regardless of the projected usage?


Workers also built the eastern platform wall in the wrong place.

Have they - can anyone elaborate on what the problems are with the
eastern platform?


The blunders have angered passengers on the route, which links Clapham
Junction to Willesden Junction. Mark Balaam, chairman of the West
London Line Group, said: [...]
"Our hope is that the Mayor will arrange for Transport for London to
open this station as soon as possible, ideally within the first few
weeks of the start of the new London Overground network next month."

I'd suggest it'd be highly unlikely for the non-regulation compliant
station to open anytime soon Mark! I think things will need to be
fixed first.


Although the station was designed and funded by Westfield, Capita
Symonds was employed as project manager. It liaised with Network Rail,
the train operating companies and other stakeholders and provided an
on-site engineer to supervise the construction work. The company
refused to comment.

Yeah, I wonder why! This appears to be a masterclass in how not to
manage a project.


A spokesman for Network Rail said: "On any project of this size, it is
sometimes necessary to revisit original designs and in this case it
has been necessary to carry out further work to look at the projected
numbers of passengers using the station and redesigning the platforms
accordingly."
"We are working with the developer to address the situation in order
to see the station in use as soon as possible."

Which just sounds like a load of waffle! The questions I posed above,
with regards to whether the platform width regulations vary according
to projected usage, stand.